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Mike Kelly's Zcar Project


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  • 3 weeks later...

So It's been a really really bad few weeks... Wrecked the motorcycle the Two weekends before Tgiving... Thanksgiving Day night my mother is rushed to the hospital. Re-fracture of an old injury to her L4 vertebrea. She's admitted to the hospital for surgery and mental health evaluation, where she's diagnosed with dementia. Four days later she has surgery. Three days later my father inlaw is rushed to the same hospital with pneumonia, which is complicating his lung cancer. And then I go back for my check up on my ankle three days after that, where I am told I likely broke the ankle and it was misdiagnosed. So needless to say I've done nothing with anything in any of my cars... Not been a very good month...My mom is in rehab for her back and is on meds to deal with her dementa, and my father inlaw is resting in the hospital recooperating from his pneumonia.

 

Mike

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Mike:

 

I am sorry to hear that you have been getting bad news from all directions but somehow writing what I just wrote doesn't seem like enough. You've got a lot of friends on the board and a lot more supporters who you have never met. I hope things take a turn for the good.

 

John

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  • 2 months later...

Sounds like a plan John!

 

I worked on it this evening and got the raw alunimum dash removed and dis-assembled and then prime'd and painted. I also touched up a few places in the rear strut sections. I also have completed the seating/ mounting/harness issues and the final radiator mounting. A lot of this stuff was small punch list stuff.

 

I suspect I'll make HUGE gains on this project over the weekend... HUGE. Got some serious momentum right now, and if the Gov't shuts down after next week, I'll be done by the time they sort it all out!!

 

Mike

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Dis-assembled and painted the aluminum dash over the last two days. Put it back together yesterday afternoon and it's ready to re-install. I also relocated the fuse panel away from contact with passenger knees... I'm going to remove the accusump and check it, as the system isn't releasing the oil in the canister like it should be...

 

Mike

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  • 2 weeks later...

Mark, I'll give that a try.

 

Here's what we have gotten accomplished in the last few days...

 

Finished the mounts for the radiator

Finished the new steering wheel QR ( http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300505848310&viewitem=&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWNX%3AIT )

Finished the uprights for the rear wing. It now sits above the hatch line and in the clean air coming over the roof.

Finished the mounting of my Ultrashield Roadrace seat.

 

Things left to do...

Remove the dash and pull the accusump so I can troubleshoot it.

Flush the fuel cell to get the year old gas out of it, along with the foam.

Mount the passenger seat (Kirkey Roadrace Intermediate)

Install the windshield.

 

We're close. I've been spending an hour or two as my ankle will allow... I plan to get this car to the track by the May 15th event at Summit Point with trackdaze.

 

Mike

 

Have you pressurized the accusump With air from the end the oil does not come into? I had put some air pressure in it to get it to function properly. This helped me.

 

http://www.accusump.com/accusump.pdf/instructions.pdf

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  • 5 weeks later...

So I had a space issue... You see when you have to many projects going on and parts being delivered for all of them, you get to a point where you need to stop and regroup... So we did that, and decided to be "done" with the Porsche GT2 conversion so we could finish up the Zcar... It was necessary to do that because I had a freshly painted GT2 front bumper and pieces in my home office and I was concerned it would eventually get scratched or damage... So The last Saturday in March I tore down the 996Turbo and converted the radiator routing, water lines, new functional airguides in the center (leading the hood) and to the sides at the wheel wells and all new supporting bits. The full tech DIY write up was published over on renntrack.com. The interesting part of this conversion was that I was able to use all OEM parts, along with retaining the locations for the horns and other bits. Some major shops in the porsche world can't seem to get this conversion right, but I didn't have any issues and it looks 100% stock Porsche GT2 now... Including the front drive system being removed.

 

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RadiatorandDuctingMochedUp.jpg

CheckingVenttohoodClearance.jpg

 

So now I've been able to redirect my time to the Zcar and I've been able to make the Accusump function properly, but it does appear that I have a leak somewhere... Air pressure isn't "holding"... So I'll have to check the unit, which will probably require pulling it. I've also been able to finish up the mounts on the Kirkey passenger seat and also been cleaning up a little more wiring routing under the hood, stuffing wired in loom and cleaning up any potential wire/heat issues. I'm trying to finish out everything in the interior so I can get the car over onto the lift so I can get it in the air to address the starter solenoid wire routing, check the oil lines, and drain the fuel cell... once all that is done, the windshield goes in. My first event this year is in May at Summit Point Shenandoah circuit, so our goal is to have that and the Miata both there...

 

Mike

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Yesterday I got the dash and gauges reinstalled and back in, the switch panel installed and tested out, the Accusump leak resolved, and tore into the fuel cell to get the year old gas out of it. I'm going to re-do the fuel routing and get that whole mess back together and then I'll need to get the car over onto the lift and see if I can start it with fresh gas in it...

 

Making progress... Basically I'm within a few days of having the windshield installed and the car ready for de-bugging...

 

Mike

Edited by Mikelly
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On Sunday I was removing the waterline to the drain catch can and broke the nipple (he said nipple) off the neck of the radiator... So I ordered a new one... smaller, actually... a 24X19 from Jegs. Came in on Wednesday and I installed it on Thursday. I'll probably give the Griffin to Tom Harris for a project down the road... I'm sure he can use it...

 

Right now I'm laying out templates to close off the fuel cell from the rest of the car. Unfortunately most clubs don't like an exposed fuel system inside the interior space... So we'll be working on that for a few days. The fuel system was drained and the fuel cell cleaned up... the majority of old fuel was removed. Also re-routed the fuel lines from the cell, through the filter (now mounted to the rear deck) to pump one, then through the surge to pump two and out under the car. The fuel system is all wired up now and the permanent mounting is complete.

 

We're having a little get together tomorrow, so maybe Tom and his band of merry lunatics will help me start the thing up... we'll see...

 

Mike

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So today we had a bit of success, a bit of frustration, and a bit of sadness...

 

It would figure that I'd get a "bad started" from the autoparts store... It wasn't "bad" but we did have to remove it, and take the solenoide out and put the plunger back in the fork of the starter so it would engage the gear... Once we did that, we were able to get the car to run. What was "odd" was that we had a braided oil line running to the remote filter block start pouring from a leak... badly... So I'll have to sort that out... We may have to much oil in the motor... the pan is a 6.5 quart pan, along with a 2 quart accusump, a Setrab oil cooler, and all the associated lines to plumb everything... I'm guessing we should have about 10 quarts max... So who knows. I'll replace the line tomorrow... But hey it ran and ran well... That exhaust system is LOUD!!!!

 

Sad part of the day was when we got the call from Tom's mom that the house they had put a bid on (and won the bid), their first, caught on fire... God I hope he and Brittany can salvage this situation...

 

Mike

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Fixed the oil lines tonight, but didn't get a chance to swap in a new oil filter and test for leaks...I'll check that tomorrow or Thursday. I'd like to back this car off the lift by its own power ASAP!!!

 

Mike

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